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Monthly Archives: September 2016

Today’s Savage Reckoning (Release date, Oct. 4) review comes from Breakaway Books. You can click on the link to read the entire review.

This is a crime novel like no other I have read. It’s raw and violent. It pictures a society quite unlike anything one would expect in any other area – one which makes up its own rules and is governed by the local rich and powerful regardless of who sits in the sheriff’s office…

This is not a book for those easily offended but it is hard edged, warm hearted and at times emotionally draining at the same time. Well worth a few hours of anyone’s time.

Savage Reckoning is available for pre-order now at the following online retailers.

This is fast-paced, ugly, and downright cynical– Still one heck of a wild ride. What takes this the extra step is amidst all the crazy, wild, out of control clusterfuck there’s some real gems of truth thrown out for you to take or let drop. I took a few.

October 4, is gonna be yuge! That is the official release date for Savage Reckoning: A Backwoods Justice Novel. The publisher has done a terrific job of getting some pre-release reviews, and I thought it would be prudent to share a few of them here over the coming days. In other words, things are gonna be all Savage all the time for the foreseeable future.

Today, our review comes from Paromjit, who gave it 5 out of 5 stars. It is a thorough review, but I’ll just share with you the final paragraph and the link to the entire review if you would like to see everything that Paromjit had to say.

This is a spellbinding book with a fast paced narrative that engages your emotions. It has an intricate and complex plot packed with twists. The character development is superb, and as for Step and Kenny, I sure hope I encounter them again. They have made an indelible impression on me. An unalloyed joy of a read. Deranged but brilliant! I highly recommend this novel without any hesitation and urge others to read it. Many thanks to Random House Alibi for an ARC.

Incidentally, “deranged but brilliant” is exactly what I want my headstone to say.

BTW: You can avoid the rush and pre-order a copy today. It’s available at most online retailers, but here’s the link to Amazon because… well, it’s Amazon. The price is a paltry $2.99. Savage Reckoning: A Backwoods Justice Novel

It occurred to me that there are two issues in our country that feed into the prejudices of opposing groups. On the one hand, we have a group of bad actors committing terrorism in the name of Islam, creating a fear among too many that all Muslims are terrorists. And, on the other hand, we have a group of inept, racist cops committing murder under the guise of public safety, creating a fear among too many that all cops are corrupt.

Neither is true. A small fraction of Muslims are radical Islamic terrorists, and a small fraction of cops are despotic thugs that think black lives don’t matter. They don’t represent the majority of either group in which they belong. Yet, their acts are so heinous and vile, those of us on the outside looking in paint both communities with broad brushes and insist that our prejudicial views are justified. Why? Because we only listen to like-minded voices on either topic. We don’t want to hear that the truth is complicated and contrary to our pre-conceived notions.

I’m not going to pretend that there isn’t a problem with using a religion to turn desperate people to terrorism. I’m agnostic, so it’s easy for me to blame religious doctrine as a catalyst for hatred. But to me, there is no difference between Islam and Christianity in that aspect. Both are tools of oppression and hatred in the wrong hands. Theocratic governments, poverty, and lack of education is the historical formula for creating a terrorist. At this point and time, the Middle East happens to be the epicenter of these three elements.

I’m also not going to pretend that we don’t have a problem with the justice system in our country. Not all cops are bad, but the bad ones are being protected by the system. It’s a grotesque byproduct of the “Blue Wall” mentality. Misconduct by a police officer is protected by police unions, and district attorney offices that are essentially partners with the police departments in their jurisdictions. Corrupt cops are allowed to skate too often because there’s a ‘protect the badge at all costs’ thread of thought at the top of most police departments that taints everyone in uniform.

Here’s the thing, good Muslims, the majority of Islam, are as frustrated by the acts of terror committed in their religion’s name as most non-Muslims. And most police officers are as angry about the corruption among their ranks as most civilians. And both are equally enraged that they must share the blame of depravity committed by a small number in their communities. A few have spoken out, but they’re largely ignored because their condemnation doesn’t fit the “all are corrupt” or “all are good” narratives.

There clearly has to be a change on both sides of all issues. A person doesn’t deserve to be considered a terrorist because of their ethnicity and/or religion. A person doesn’t deserve to be labeled a criminal because of the color of their skin, and a person doesn’t deserve to be identified as a corrupt racist because of the badge pinned to their chest. We have to start talking to each other instead of at each other. When we start listening to each other, we can then institute meaningful systemic changes that solve the problems in a fair and just manner. If we continue to shout at and insult one another, we create wider divides that grow increasingly hard to bridge.

I was in my car when it happened, on my way to Milledgeville, Georgia from Charleston, South Carolina. I sat in misery as I drove down a backwoods highway. I was 34-years-old, and I hated my job. Worse than that, I couldn’t remember a job I liked since I quit my gig as a dishwasher in a hospital at the age of seventeen. I had lived an entire lifetime since dreading the concept of waking up on a weekday and dressing for a job that would slowly suck the life out of me. Professional fulfillment was something that eluded me so thoroughly I was convinced that I was hardwired to hate working. Not the physical effort just the emotional investment.

Howard Stern was on the radio. He is the one who told me what happened that morning, and because of that I…

Last night was the final performance of One Bear Lake at 5th Wall Productions theater. While I could not be there, I found out through Facebook that it was a sold out performance. I am thrilled for the cast and company. They worked incredibly hard on putting the production together and staging seven performances of […]